Ariane

London

— September 14, 2017 —

We first met Ariane when we wrapped her up in a puffer jacket in Sydney earlier this year, and then had the great fortune of a second hang in London right after she arrived last month. She originally hails from London, a place she describes as “dark, wet and cold”, and migrated to Australia at the very socially formative age of 13. High school was “not her time”, but she still feels grateful to have been exposed to a new culture while growing up. “Having a dislocated sense of home has made me appreciate and place higher value in relationships with family and friends. To me home isn’t defined by a place, but rather by the people you’re with. That being said, I do love Sydney physically as a place… The beaches, the harbour, the weather… absolute bliss.”

If she became mayor of Sydney tomorrow, she would immediately illegalise the wearing of thongs in any other place than the beach. Yes! In case you were wondering, we shot our (hopeful) future mayor around Chelsea, a suburb she aptly describes as “like Mosman but less Lululemon, more Gucci, and with the river Thames replacing Balmoral beach.”

The talented artist describes her work as very figurative, and is intrigued and inspired by the body and the corporeal existence. Aka, lots of n00ds. She sees her art an extension of modelling as “it requires a similar level of bodily awareness.” As a self-proclaimed diehard narcissist, much of her work is self-portraiture, which also ties in nicely with making a living off having her pic taken. Her current painting practice is concerned with “the narcissistic tendencies of an online.”

“I have been working on a series that mockingly interrogates the personas we manufacture across social media platforms, visualising this through collaged imagery. Initially I was using photoshop to create reference compositions to translate into paint on canvas. However, I liked the images in their digital form a little more than anticipated, so started posting them on instagram and have been doing so ever since.”

The way sexual assault is handled within a male-dominated setting is the most important social issue to her at current. In particular, the societal tendency to shame or silence people to the point they “feel they no longer have a voice and cannot speak out against their abuser”. In terms of on-screen characters, she identifies most strongly with Ilana from Broad City, because “it’s refreshing to see a strong, sexual female lead as opposed to a passive, sexualised female character”, and if she could resurrect any values from a past era, it would be the hedonism of the roaring 20s (LY, Ariane). Her favourite book, movie and song at the moment are: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Tarantino’s Kill Bill (volume 1 of course) and Gucci Mane’s Love Her Body, respectively.

Her thought process when getting dressed in the morning is as follows: “Is it black? Is it (relatively) clean? Can I comfortably power walk in it?” Her ultimate style icon is Tyra Banks. The most exciting thing about being a young person living in ‘17 for her is virtual gaming because real life stinks. She finds it hard to give definition to the word ‘cool’, because she identifies as being severely uncool. We digress. You’re the coolest, Ariane, can’t wait to hang again.